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While this is a great swashbuckling pirate adventure, the big open world feels rather empty, even though it is not.
Pirates The Legend of Black Kat provides an open world with lots of places to explore and plenty of adventuring. However, it lacks the vibrant communities and AI that make up one of the core strengths of Sid Meier's Pirates!. In that regard, it is a barren and lifeless place. Adding civilization would have added significantly more depth here and could have brought this game up to the level of a GTA type of experience.
Despite the lack of citizens, the game is still fun and has a lot to offer. After obtaining a key which could unlock some treasure chests that I had seen, I returned to discover that I had missed more than just that one chest. I found quite a few new and interesting things, breathing a fresh feeling of exploration into the adventure.
The naval combat at first seemed oversimplified. The guns auto-target enemies and handle firing angles. However, as the game progresses, naval combat requires some skill and tactics. That said, I have found a pretty solid strategy against fixed land-based targets, which is to simply sail in a tight circle.
Death can be pretty painful. Save points are not always convenient and with no checkpoints or continue ability, many times death means losing quite a bit of progress.
I have made another realization about games from this adventure. I have gotten plenty of interesting items, but they have limited numbers of uses. In most cases, I have not seen a ready supply of replacements available. Since I have no idea if I may need the items later, I never use them. Instead, I packrat them away and miss out on possibly fun ways to play the game. I realize that sometimes you want to give the player a fun toy or cool power, but how do you limit the use of that power without leading to the result that I have arrived at?
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